Toronto Blue Jays president and CEO Paul Beeston.FRED THORNHILL/Reuters
From his second floor office balcony beyond the right field fence at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium, Paul Beeston has an unobstructed view. But it's hardly necessary: He's intimately familiar with the facility that has served as the spring training home of the Toronto Blue Jays ever since they began playing in Major League Baseball in 1977.
The Day 1 employee of the Blue Jays currently serves as the club's president and chief executive officer, and he and the team are fixtures every spring in a coastal town that embraces the team the way Torontonians do.
But the baseball facilities that the Blue Jays use here need a major overhaul, and the club was seriously considering relocating its spring operations to a new Florida site once the lease in Dunedin expires in 2017.
That is not the case any more, as the Blue Jays and the City of Dunedin appear set to continue their long-term relationship. And that may have something to do with the way Mr. Beeston, who's famously loyal, does business.
So the groundwork for a new baseball facility here in Dunedin is in discussion, and the baseball club is now confident something will be worked out.
And for Mr. Beeston, the new development would be the final act of a Jays career that will end at the conclusion of the 2015 MLB season, when the 69-year-old is set to step aside from his role as the team's top executive.